Apartheid. USA 1988

March 31, 1987:

In Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Atlanta and elsewhere, blacks have been elected mayors, but in New York, no black has been elected to a city-wide office. Blacks hold presently 6 of 35 City Council seats; 13 of the City's 60 State Assembly seats; 4 of the City's 25 State Senate seats, and 4 of the 14 Congressional seats. Despite

[p. 54]

these victories, blacks in New York still lack the power to make executive decisions that would come from a city-wide office. Politicians, black and white, see this failure as a reflection of a larger stagnation in efforts to improve relations between blacks and whites in New York. There seems to be a kind of political loop at work, according to a number of black leaders. Increasing racial tension may make it more difficult for whites and blacks to form coalitions. And the failure to form coalitions has the effect of lessening black political power, which then leads to increased racial tensions.

Because of this tension, black politicians face a challenge of political balancing that is much more difficult than what faces most white politicians. ‘If you work to unify the black votes you are a racist,’ said Assemblyman Herman D Farrell, the Manhattan Democratic county leader,’ and if you don't do that then you are in trouble because you don't have a political base.’ This is further complicated by what some black elected officials describe as ‘a growing militancy among young blacks, including black professionals’, who feel black officials are too accommodating toward incumbent officials. The most visible example is the rising visibility of two lawyers, Alton H Maddox Jr and C Vernon Mason, who have aggressively challenged the political and judicial system in the Howard Beach, Queens, racial attack prosecution and other cases.^76.

Students at the nation's 57 historically black private colleges are bearing the brunt of Federal grant cutback. These black students are falling deeply into debt to finance their educations. These financial obstacles may be responsible for a 4 percent drop in black college enrollment from 1980 to 1984, while high school graduation rates among blacks went up. These data were supplied by a newly released report, ‘Access to College: The Impact of Federal Financial Aid Policies at Private Historically Black Colleges’, published by

76. The New York Times, from a report by Michael Oreskes

[p. 55]

the United Negro College Fund and the National Institute of Independent Colleges and Universities. The study was based on 2 380 student aid records at 38 colleges and universities.

‘These students, absolutely the truly neediest, are being badly hurt by a Federal policy that asks many to take out college loans bigger than their families' incomes,’ said the Institute president, Richard Rosser. Students at these black colleges were more dependent on Federal Aid than other students because they were poorer, tended to come from states offering little or no financial aid, and attended institutions whose low tuition and limited endowment made them less able to provide financial help. More than 80 percent of full-time undergraduates, or almost 50 000 students, depended on student aid to help meet college costs in 1983-84.

At historically black colleges there are studying 62 000 students. The median family income of these students was 10.733 dollars, or one-third of the median income for all other families with a child in college. Forty-two percent of the students at historically black colleges come from families with an income below the poverty line. Thirty percent of these students come from families with an income below 6 000 dollars annually. To give an example, in 1982 an income of 9 862 dollars annually was the poverty line. Bruce Carnes, a Deputy Under-Secretary at the Education Department in Washington called the report on black colleges false, pathetic and malicious. He accused the writers of the report known ‘for a single-minded devotion to their parochial interests’.^77.

77. The New York Times, from a report by the Associated Press